On Sunday 26th March 2023, the Management and Staff of Radio Lagos & Lagos Television held the 14th edition of Alhaji Kafaru Oluwole Tinubu Memorial Ramadan lecture which was held inside De Blue Roof, LTV premises in Ikeja, Lagos.
There were a lot of important dignitaries at the event. They included the former Commissioner for Health in Lagos State, Dr. Jide Idris, Hon. Justice Ibrahim Ishola Olohunibe, Chief Zikirullahi Alabi Macfoy, the Bashorun musulumi central mosque, Dr Nahimudeen Ekemode, the moderator of the event,Dr Musbau Juniad (fmr ) Senior lecturer in the Department of history at the University of Lagos, the Chairman of the occasion Alhaji Wahab Babatunde Dabiri ( Chairman of Academy Press Plc. and past Chairman of the crescent bearer 1939).
The invited guests include the Governor of Lagos state, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo- Olu, the Deputy Governor of Lagos state Dr. Kadiri Obafemi Hamzat, while the guest lecturer was Dr Saheed Timehin, the head of Arabic unit, Department of Foreign Languages at the Lagos State University. He gave a lecture on Governance and Social Justice: Islamic Perspectives. There was also a second lecture delivered by Dr Ganiyat Tijani- Adenle, Senior lecturer, Lagos State University and she gave a lecture on The Societal impacts of cultural Imperialism on moral decadence: Islamic alternatives and panacea.
There was a great young man Hafiz Abdusalaam Noor ul Quran who recited from the holy Quran. The opening remark from the Chairman was a great one. Each guest lecturer talked extensively on their distinguished topics and they backed it up with different Quran verses.
The first lecturer talked about citizens that will see the bad deeds of those in government but will not correct them due to what they want to take from them. Instead of complaining about society to those in government,they will rather complain about their own problems. He also said we should tell truth to power and do the right thing in accordance to the Islamic religion and at this period of fasting we should make sure everyone governs his or her home right because the government started from an individual, thereafter home, before it gets to the community, next to local government, then to the state and to the federal level.
The second lecturer spoke more about the societal impacts of cultural imperialism on moral decadence. She said the society has adopted the foreign culture in a bad way. She said the adoption of foreign culture has made our children and youth sweep our own culture under the carpet, and this has led them astray in many ways. He urged parents to be careful of the lifestyle their children live. She said we should give our children good training, don’t think because you sent your child to the most expensive school will make your child be a better person, but it is with good character and good behaviour. “Oju merin lo bi Omo, igba oju lo n to” Don’t go to school because a teacher beat your child. Let’s do this together so that our society of tomorrow and the future of our children will be better and perfect.
Who is Late Alhaji Kafaru Oluwole Tinubu ?
President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu revealed a lot about him in October 2013.
According to him, “Death comes to all of us. Since it is the one thing we cannot conquer, there is no shame in death.”
“The question then is not whether we shall pass on but how did we live up to that fateful moment.”
“For too many people, death may be the most remarkable aspect of their lives. These people did nothing good for anyone at any time except themselves. They lived for the moment and to satisfy only their desires. Such people are dead even before Death comes. They took more from the world than they gave. Only in death do they serve the world by making room for others who hopefully are less selfish. Once such people are interred, they are quickly forgotten for they did nothing good to remember.”
“NOT SO WITH KAFARU OLUWOLE TINUBU. Though he has passed on, those who know still salute him. Those lives he touched, he touched by doing good. And those who did not know, wish they had.”
“Death does not bring his life to an abrupt close. His legacy shall endure because the things that he accomplished celebrate and honor the best of humanity. His service to mankind, to his society and its people, continue to live on.
This man was a man of honor. No one can say any differently. He knew what it was to be right and to do good. He knew the sacrifices that service to mankind entailed. He made the tough selfless choices to do right. He never took the easy way. Always with his eye on what is good and right, he walked the path of justice and public service.”
“I am not saying he was some unique superhuman. If he had been such, he would deserve no acknowledgment because he would have been destined to superlative feats.
No, KAFARU OLUWOLE TINUBU was a human being, a mortal made of flesh and blood, a man of flaws and individual passions like the rest of us. Yet, he decided he would not be normal. He chose to listen to the better passions and voices within himself and not surrender to the vices and ills of undue ambition and selfish gain. He chose to devote himself to a cause much greater than himself. This makes him better than a superhuman. It makes him a hero who had the courage to overcome his own failings to be great when it was much easier and less costly to be otherwise.”
“He rose above self to create a better society. The story of his public service career reads like a book of civic virtue and high purpose. He walked the path we all would do well to follow and emulate.”
“ALHAJI KAFARU OLUWOLE TINUBU was passionate about Lagos State and her development. He was passionate about me and the quality of stewardship I rendered to the people of Lagos. He deployed his resources and professional arsenal to secure and protect these two passions. At no time did I benefit from his protective arm of love than during the days of the Struggle when Gen. Abacha ran amock. I became vulnerable. A target. He helped me and made the NADECO days bearable. He did all of this in an unobtrusive manner. All through the turbulent period he was a sea of calm and a constant pillar of support. He was my sounding board for policy decisions especially when I was governor. A tough customer no doubt as he never took NO for an answer, marshaling superior arguments to win his case. To his credit, he was perceptive and obsessed with about my political success and the development of Lagos.”
“He never shied away from any challenges but embraced both challenges and opportunities. He was a man who loved to serve others. He was the longest-serving National President of the Anwar-ur-Islam and deployed enormous goodwill and understanding in forging harmonious inter-faith relationships. He was passionate about the Tinubu clan. He was a rock of support, encouragement and motivation”.
“Today, we remember a man who left behind a sustainable and enviable legacy. We celebrate a detribalized Nigerian. I dare say that had more of those players been like K.O., Nigeria would have been better off then and would be better off now. While we cannot recast the past we can shape the future. To shape a better future, we would do well to follow the example this man set before us.”
“For he shall be remembered as a man of truth and devotion to the greater good. We glean from his example the view of a better humanity. In remembering him, we are compelled to look beyond the short horizon of our immediate and personal desires to a finer place where our collective welfare and the hopes of the people are paramount, protected and secured against ambitious encroachment.”
“ALHAJI KAFARU OLUWOLE TINUBU’S life may have stopped but his example compels us to move forward to a Nigeria greater than the one that now is. The patriotism that drove men like K.O. to invest their lives in making Nigeria work almost seems quaint and misplaced in our present circumstance where a succession of myopic leaders who have failed to make Nigeria work for all but themselves.”
“What began as a dream in the days of K.O. has turned into night dust. What was envisioned as a nation is now a contraption, a choir of contradictions and recriminations.”
“This is not what KAFARU OLUWOLE TINUBU lived for and it is not the legacy he has bequeathed us. He represented the good that is possible in this country. We must do honor to his life by living as he lived. He would want us to strive toward unity, justice, democracy, prosperity and peace. We should do this not only because this is what he would want but because this is good. It is the only way to give life its better meaning.”.
“I shall miss KAFARU OLUWOLE TINUBU, popularly called K.O. but also not miss him for his spirit is with me, encouraging me to forge ahead. He is one of my personal heroes. He is a hero because he represented what is good, decent and proper about this nation I love so much.”
“Let us use this sombre occasion to rededicate ourselves to building a new Nigeria. However, this will not happen by mouthing happy words- It can only happen by emulating the life of the man we honor and of the lives of others like him who in their places of vocation, their homes and wherever they found themselves lived according to a lofty purpose and sought a higher goal. Let us be like them and build a better Nigeria by being better Nigerians. Let us do the right and principled thing. Let us stand for the premise that this nation is better than it’s past and present. That this nation finds its true self in the future that we shall begin to create. Only in this way, do we honor the life and legacy of ALHAJI KAFARU OLUWOLE TINUBU.”
Abiodun Olusola
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